WEISS / MANFREDI to Design Kent State’s New, $40 Million Architecture Building
WEISS / MANFREDI has been announced as winner of the international competition to design a new College of Architecture and Environmental Design for Kent State University in Ohio. The New York-based practice, in collaboration with the local architect of record Richard L. Bowen & Associates, was one of four national finalists selected from a competitive list of 37 applicants.
The winning proposal, dubbed the Kent State Design Loft, transforms the notion of a continuous studio loft into a three-tiered structure that opens to the city, connects to the public esplanade and surrounding landscape, and provides an abundance of creatively designed, flexible learning spaces that can be easily transformed to accommodate design crits, exhibitions and events.
“We are captivated by the potential for this project to become an innovative incubator for the arts and an internationally legible destination for the University,” said Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi.
The architect’s project description after the break…
St. Petersburg Pier Design Competition Announces Semi-finalists
The St. Petersburg Pier, a long-adored and long-outdated West Florida cultural attraction, has unveiled the semi-finalists in its international redesign competition. Of the twenty-three qualified inquiries received, nine were chosen to move forward in the contest. The competition attracted big names in the architecture world; BIG, West 8 Urban Design, James Corner Field Operations, and HOK Architects were among the participants.
More on the St. Petersburg Pier after the break.
2011 AIA Honor Award / The Diana Center / Weiss Manfredi
We are happy to share that our friends from New York-based Weiss Manfredi will be recognized at the 2011 AIA Honor Awards Ceremony in New Orleans this May. The firm’s Diana Center for Barnard College has infused the urban campus with a new sense of vitality as the vertically organized quad unites landscape and architecture with interior and exterior spaces. While the building contains 98,000 sqf of mixed use functions, the project also strongly emphasizes the constant connection between urban user and nature as a grand diagonal slash through the building creates a double-height glass atria to provide inward, as well as outward views. The slipped atria and an unfolded glazed staircase bring in natural light and eliminate visual boundaries between the College and the city, while providing spaces for informal interaction to encourage collaboration and dialogue across disciplines. The building has achieved a LEED Gold certification and Debora L. Spar, president of Barnard College explained, “The Diana Center has not only transformed the way our community interacts, but through its environmentally responsible design and function, has inspired us to become active participants in sustainability efforts. The project was also named a winner of ArchDaily’s Building of the Year Award for 2010 [be sure to view our full coverage of the Diana Center previously on AD].
Architecture City Guide: Seattle
Our Architecture City Guide series heads to the northwest this week featuring Seattle. The futuristic Seattle Space Needle, designed for the 1962 World’s Fair – Century 21 Exposition, is just one of the many can’t miss buildings on our list. What others do you think should be added? Visit our comment section to share your favorites.
The Architecture City Guide: Seattle list and corresponding map after the break!
Smith College Campus Center / Weiss Manfredi
Students at Smith College—the largest liberal arts institution for women in the country—are assigned to houses, many of them Victorian-era structures complete with living rooms. Meant to foster a collegial environment, while successful, they also create isolated communities. Broadening the opportunity for social interaction, the Smith College Campus Center serves as a mediating body, the only building at Smith available to all students, faculty, and staff.
Follow the break for more photographs and drawings of this Weiss/Manfredi project.
Architects: Weiss/Manfredi
Location: Smith College Campus, Northampton, Massachusetts, USA
Design Partners: Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi
Project Manager: Tae-Young Yoon
Project Architects: Armando Petruccelli and Kian Goh
Project Team: Michael Blasberg, Lauren Crahan, Stephanie Maignan, Chris Payne, Jason Ro, and Yehre Suh
Structural Engineering Consultant: Weidlinger Associates Consulting Engineers
MEPFP Engineering Consultant: Jaros, Baum, and Bolles Consulting Engineers
Landscape Architecture Consultant: Towers|Golde Landscape Architects and Site Planners
Lighting Design Consultant: Renfro Design Group, Inc.
Civil Engineering Consultant: Fuss & O’Neill
Curtain Wall Consultant: R. A. Heintges Architects Consultants
AV/Acoustics/IT Consultant: Shen Milsom & Wilke
Food Service Consultant: Cini-Little International
Cost Estimator: AMIS Inc.
Waterproofing Consultant: James Gainfort
Construction Manager: Daniel O’Connell’s Sons, Inc.
Client: Smith College
Project Area: 60,000 sqf
Photographs: Jeff Goldberg
AD Interviews: Weiss Manfredi
Some time ago we visited New York City based Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism, to interview founding principals Marion Wesis and Michael Manfredi. The multidisciplinary firm has distinguished themselves with their holistic design approach, successfully integrating the disciplines of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape design.
One of their well-known works, the Olympic Sculpture Park for the Seattle Art Museum, was the winning design of an international competition. Weiss/Manfredi conceptualized it to be a new model for an urban sculpture park. The design transformed a contaminated brownfield into a public park space in downtown Seattle, and extended the museum into the landscape of the city. The Olympic Sculpture Park has been such a successful design that it has become a case study for further urban landscapes.
The firm ahas continued to succeed with their design concepts, as seen in their participation in the St. Louis Arch The City + The Arch + The River International competition. Among the most prominent architects, Weiss/Manfredi was selected as a finalist in this competition.
In 2007 Weiss/Manfredi received the AIA Gold Medal of Honor, New York Chapter. Their work has been recognized regionally, nationally and internationally receiving numerous awards and garnering competitions. They have also been featured at the Museum of Modem Art, the Venice Architectural Biennale, and the Sao Paolo Biennale of International Architecture and Design.
Their work can also be found on two monographs: Site Specific
Weiss/Manfredi projects previously featured in ArchDaily:
Olympic Sculpture Park / Weiss Manfredi
Envisioned as a new urban model for sculpture parks, this project is located on Seattle’s last undeveloped waterfront property – an industrial brownfield site sliced by train tracks and an arterial road. The design connects three separate sites with an uninterrupted Z-shaped “green” platform, descending forty feet from the city to the water, capitalizing on views of the skyline and Elliott Bay, and rising over existing infrastructure to reconnect the urban core to the revitalized waterfront.
Architects: Weiss/Manfredi Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Project Team: Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi (Design Partners), Christopher Ballentine (Project Manager), Todd Hoehn and Yehre Suh (Project Architects), Patrick Armacost, Michael Blasberg, Emily Clanahan, Lauren Crahan, Beatrice Eleazar, Kian Goh, Hamilton Hadden, Mike Harshman, Mustapha Jundi, Justin Kwok, John Peek, and Akari Takebayashi
Structural and Civil Engineering Consultant: Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Consultant: ABACUS Engineered Systems
Lighting Design Consultant: Brandston Partnership Inc.
General Contractor: Sellen Construction
Geotechnical Engineering Consultant: Hart Crowser
Environmental Consultant: Aspect Consulting
Aquatic Engineering Consultant: Anchor Environmental
Graphics Consultant: Pentagram
Security and AV/IT Consultant: ARUP
Catering & Food Service Consultant: Bon Appetit
Kitchen Consultant: JLR Design
Retail Consultant: Doyle + Associates
Project Management: Barrientos LLC
Architectural Site Representation: Owens Richards Architects
Client: Seattle Art Museum
Project Year: 2001-2007
Photographs: Benjamin Benschneider, Bruce Moore, Paul Warchol
Weiss Manfredi Surface Sub Surface
For nearly two decades the architecture firm Weiss/Manfredi has practiced outside the traditional boundaries of architecture. Their work with complex sites and programs benefits from an interdisciplinary approach and a dynamic integration of architecture, art, infrastructure, and landscape design. Surface/Subsurface presents nine major projects that have been completed since their first monograph Site Specific
Museum of Earth / Weiss Manfredi
Our friends from Manhattan-based Weiss Manfredi have shared their museum design for Ithaca, New York’s Paleontological Research Institution, which houses one of the United States’ largest paleontological collections. Situated in the Finger Lakes region, the natural landforms of the site inspired the architects to take advantage of the existing gradual 40 ft slope – a feature which resulted from a receding ice sheet more than 20,000 years ago. Rather than considering the site as distinct and separate from the museum, this project creates a new topography: a continuous, terraced landscape that fuses architecture and ecology into a cohesive expression of the geologic processes involved in the region’s formation.
More images and more about the museum after the break.
The Diana Center at Barnard College / Weiss Manfredi
Winner of a national design competition and a Progressive Architecture Award, the Diana Center establishes a new nexus for social, cultural, and intellectual life at Barnard College. From the historic entrance gate at Broadway, the wedge-shaped design frames a clear sightline linking the central campus at Lehman Lawn to the lower level historic core of the campus. The Diana Center extends Lehman Lawn horizontally and vertically: descending planted terraces cascade north to Milbank Hall, previously isolated by a 14-foot-high retaining wall and plaza, and ascending double-height atria bring natural light and views into the seven-story structure.
Follow the break for more drawings and photographs.
Architects: Weiss/Manfredi
Location: New York City, New York, USA
Design Partners: Marion Weiss and Michael A. Manfredi
Project Manager: Mike Harshman
Project Architects: Clifton Balch, Kian Goh, Kim Nun and Yehre Suh
Project Team: Michael Blasberg, Beth Eckels, Hamilton Hadden, Patrick Hazari, Todd Hoehn, Bryan Kelley, Justin Kwok, Lee Lim, Nick Shipes, Michael Steiner
Pre-design team: Patrick Armacost, Jason Ro, Yehre Suh, and Tae-Young Yoon
Client: Barnard College
Project Area: 98,000 sqf
Project Year: 2003-2010
Photographs: Albert Vecerka/Esto and Paul Warchol
Taekwondo Park World Headquarters / Weiss Manfredi
The new Taekwondo Park World Headquarters in Muju, Korea will become a world cultural heritage site meant to emphasize the spirit and beauty of the sport. The master plan, which covers 570 acres, will be created by Weiss/Manfredi while the complex will be designed by Samoo Architecture PC.
More about the project after the break.
